This blog has nothing to do with gorillas (though I love 'em)...fellow bloggers have inspired me to share vintage images of Disneyland from my personal collection. But don't be surprised if you see something from a World's Fair, Knott's Berry Farm, or someplace else that is cool!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Instead of the back side of water, let's take a look at the back side of the gateway into Adventureland. A carnivorous swan waits for its next victim to fall through the widely spaced bamboo poles. Small children make for a wonderful snack! The elephant tusks still look like ivory; later they were painted to resemble carved wood, just in case some numbskull believed that Walt Disney actually had an elephant killed for his theme park.

Here's my favorite cozy li'l shack, made from palm leaves and bamboo. Always bamboo! There's not much privacy, but a nice breeze helps to alleviate the tropical humidity.

14 comments:

Don't recall EVER seeing the lanai that clear in the open. You can see the whole thing. Neat and tidy... waiting for me to punt over, toss the prawn basket into the river waters and crash out on that crude bench/bunk. And taunt the guests until the jungle grows in and gives me some privacy!

Hm hope the parents don't let go of that little kid on the bridge, he looks like he might be thinking of dashing through the barricade to take on the jungle river, only to be picked clean by that killer swan...

That is an interesting angle. Even when walking that way, I don't recall ever pausing and letting is sink in. Always part of the 'herding' effect and simply spilled into the HUB too quickly to appreciate that view.Good picture.

TM!, the swans were exposed to the same gamma radiation that turned Bruce Banner into the Hulk!

Chiana, nowadays the little bridge into Adventureland has a finely-woven rope mesh to prevent clumsy kids and adults from somehow falling through. I wonder if anything like that EVER happened? My guess is that it is just the result of nervous lawyers.

Daveland, that first pic is only a little bit different, but at this point anything different qualifies as interesting!

Chuck, it is true that people tend to have a lot more sympathy for animals than they do for their own kind.

Thufer, I'm sure I *could* have seen that angle, but as a clueless kid I would have never noticed anyway (and I'm not that much better now).

Connie, really, the Dole Whip shack is about where those poles are? I would have thought it was quite a ways "behind us". I'm so confused!

Major, there have been numerous revisions to the building code for railing heights and picket spacing over the years, first closer, then further apart, then closer again.

This could account for the addition of the netting, not necessarily a fall or injury, just keeping up with the nanny state.

In my distant youth, there was a good sized rock in the planter just beyond the right hand poles in the first picture, right about where the Hub landscape starts to become tropical...

Once when we were standing here, sort of "resting" about dusk, a cast member came up past us to the rock. He bent down and lifted up the edge of what looked like a 300lb boulder. Of course, the boulder was hollow and concealed a valve which turned on the gas torches...

For years, we couldn't walk by that boulder without tapping it to hear it ring hollow. It's gone now, I don't know when it was moved.

OC Native, see this is what I'm talking about! I just rode the Jungle Cruise a month or so ago, and I have no idea if there is even a hut over there. Of course I was distracted by two little kids who were running around without any parental control at all.

JG, I'm sure you are right about the changing building codes, but I'll bet that Disney was proactive to fend off any potential lawsuits. I love the story about the rock! Not too long ago, Vintage Disneyland Tickets showed photos of the "rocks" around Sleeping Beauty Castle falling apart, and you could see the chicken wire and concrete. Even though we know they are not real, it was still surprising to see "behind the curtain" so to speak.